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["Hillary Clinton’s realistic attitude is the only thing that can effect change in today’s political climate." I.e., the political climate that the Democratic establishment did so much to create. The machine is hard at work. See also: Bernie Sanders, Public Menace. *RON*]

Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz have something in common. Both have an electoral strategy predicated on the ability of a purist candidate to revolutionize the electorate—bringing droves of chronic non-voters to the polls because at last they have a choice, not an echo—and along the way transforming the political system. Sanders can point to his large crowds and impressive, even astonishing, success at tapping into a small-donor base that exceeds, in breadth and depth, the remarkable one built in 2008 by Barack Obama. Cruz points to his extraordinarily sophisticated voter-identification operation, one that certainly seemed to do …

At an event in New Hampshire, Cruz, the Republican Iowa caucuses winner, was asked about campaign money he and his wife borrowed from Goldman Sachs. Cruz, asserting that Trump had “upward of $480 million of loans from giant Wall Street banks,” said: “For him to make this attack, to use a New York term, it’s the height of chutzpah.” Cruz, pausing for laughter after the phrase “New York term,” exaggerated the guttural “ch” to more laughter and applause.

But “chutzpah,” of course, is not a “New York” term. It’s a Yiddish — a Jewish — one. And using “New York” as a eu…

[This is part of the end-game of corporatocracy. They smile and look smugly humble while, in effect, saying, "Who needs democracy? Rich people with real business smarts can line their pockets and decide what the people need. You know, like art galleries full of 18th century paintings by dead white European men in all-white neighbourhoods. So, don't come bugging us for taxes, right?" *RON*]

[Now, here is another way of looking at corporatocratic philanthropy. Philanthropy basically means love of the people. Why not start loving the people 30 years earlier in your business career? *RON*]

[Reaction from Esquire: "What putative progressive—hell, what putative human being—would brag on being endorsed by the most pus-blooded vampire in American public life? Here with an opposing opinion are 40,000 dead Chileans, 100,000 dead East Timorese, and countless dead Laotians, Vietnamese and dead Cambodians. And she's the one with the foreign policy chops." *RON*]

By Greg Grandin, The Nation, 5 February 2016
Clinton just can’t quit him. Even as she is trying to outflank Bernie on his left, Hillary Clinton can’t help but stutter the name of Henry Kissinger. Last night in the New Hampshire debate, Clinton thought to close her argument that she is the true progressive with this: “I was very flattered when Henry Kissinger said I ran the State Department better than anybody had run it in a long time.”